It comes from boxing, the boxing sport, and I’m not a boxing fan; I don’t really know anything about boxing. But I think there’s a rule in boxing or fighting, something about hitting below the waist, hitting low on the waist. It is not allowed. It’s not fair. Sorry, I really don’t know about boxing! But it’s dangerous because of the kidneys or something like that- I don’t know.

If you know about the boxing rule then you can explain it to us in the comments on this post, right?

But anyway, to “hit below the belt” means to do something that is not fair, not okay.

“That’s hitting below the belt; that’s not fair. You shouldn’t do that.”

Another way to talk about something that is not fair is to “get a raw deal”. “I got a raw deal on that.”

Raw meaning not cooked, the opposite of cooked, right? If you get a raw deal on something it’s a bad deal, an unfair deal.

And here’s one more. People say “to get a fair shake”. If you get a fair shake on something then you get a fair deal and everything’s okay. If you didn’t get a fair shake, you didn’t get a fair deal.